Tales of Li'l Foot

I’ve dreaded tonight for MONTHS. Literally MONTHS!

In October of 2007 I was rushing to the train, down a hill when I still worked in NYC. I don’t remember why, but I was running late that morning. I was stopped by an MTA cop and given a ticket for doing 49 in a 30. (I thought I wrote about this incident, but I checked in my archives and didn’t see anything. Maybe I just tweeted it back then.)

In February of this year, my world was crashing in around me. I was laid off. The same day LFD was in a car accident (he was fine, but his car needed repairs and I had no job). I was struggling with my Godmother being sick and was visiting her most days since I wasn’t working. I was a mess. Needless to say it was not even two months into 2009 and I was ready to usher in 2010. I was on my way one day to pick up Li’l Foot from school and then go have a play date with my friend and her daughter. It was going to be one good thing in a sea of bad things. I was stopped once again by a cop doing 64 in a 40.

After I got processed into the system, both tickets came back in the form of court date paperwork. When I looked at the paperwork, the cops name on both, were exactly the same. Stanton. I died. The same cop, who was an MTA cop in 2007, as now a trooper and true to form, my luck had me pulled over by the same guy twice.

LFD plays softball with a group of lawyers so we had some help. There were about 3 other court dates that were postponed over the summer for one reason or another and I wound up with tonight as the court date. I left work early, hit all the lights, got stuck behind every single landscaping truck, minivan and Subaru that could possibly have been on the road. But I made it. 5 minutes late, but I made it.

My lawyer bullied his way to the front of the line of numbers given out when I checked in. LOVE him! We still had to wait, but I had only been there 10 minutes and he had already negotiated my NYS trooper ticket down to a 1011A (failure to obey a traffic control device). 2 points on my license, no dings on my insurance. A fine that would be TBD at the end of the night by the judge.

Then we waited. We also found out that Stanton? Well he wasn’t one in the same MTA cop turned NYS trooper. Oh no, that was way too easy. They were two cops. THEY? Were BROTHERS! My sucky luck!

A couple cops entered the court room and my lawyer asked me if either of them was the cop who pulled me over. I said no. He asked me if I was sure and I said, “ummmm, yes, the cop that pulled me over was, ummmm, cuter!” He said “fair enough!” (What? It was true, the two cops that were standing at the front of the court room, weren’t good looking, I knew what my two cops looked like, they were definitely cuter.) And a little side note, both of them, when I thought they were one int he same, both said to me, “sorry I have to give you a ticket but appear on the day you are scheduled to appear in court and I will lower your violation to a lesser offense.” They actually weren’t jerky cops at all, relatively nice actually.

So court began in session. The judge took the bench. Put forth his rules of the courtroom, “no eating, no cell phone use, no texting or tweeting, whatever you call it” He actually said that!!! I kid you not. I hid my phone in my bag, with half a tweet written up! Heh!

We were the 1st case to be called, but since the MTS cop brother hadn’t arrived yet (actually he had just arrived), my case couldn’t be presented. My lawyer went back to talk with him.When he came back he said he had agreed to lower it to a 1201A (parked on pavement). Ummm…ok, sorry, what? I thought that’s where people parked, on the pavement!!! I think in context it actually means parked illegally somewhere not in a designated area. He knew I was already getting 2 points on my license for the other violation and this offense wouldn’t give me an additional points. My lawyer was astonished. MTA cop brother basically took a SIX point violation down to ZERO points. My lawyer basically said that’s unheard of. To take a 6 point ticket down to a zero point violation is never done. I’d still have a fine, but no additional points on my license.

Let’s review.

MTA cop brother, 49 in a 30 would’ve equaled 6 points and was now ZERO points.

NYS trooper brother, 64 in a 40 would’ve equaled 4 points and was now TWO points.

I forget how the actual breakdown of fines went, but all told it came to $360.00

Ouch! So much for Christmas this year. Sorry family.

So? Lesson learned. Oh and? Being in traffic court is like airing out your dirty laundry. Everyone hears your business in that court room. It’s awful. If there’s one thing I do know, I heard people behind me tonight as I stood there waiting for the judge to do his thing. And when they heard that I was pulled over twice, by two cops, who were brothers, I pretty much made everyone else’s night in that court but my own! The judge even made a joke about it to the two brother cops who were both standing in the court room, one by the bench and one by the prosecutor’s desk side of the room. Humiliating! So humiliating. But so much my luck.